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Council settles on looking at options to broaden density targets

After much back and forth, Council agreed to look at broadening Cochrane’s density targets as a way of better controlling both the rate and availability of different residential units during their last meeting on Jan. 22.

The Notice of Motion regarding this subject was originally brought forward on Jan. 8 by Councillor Morgan Nagel and Alex Reed in response to the legislated growth management board for the Calgary region. Given that for years the Town has been following the density target of 8 to 10 units per acre with the understanding that the targets would soon be forced on them by the Province, the two councillors wanted a chance to review residential target in town, how they are impacted by other governments and the options available to Council to reduce the targets.

This would be especially helpful given that the Land Use Bylaw is up for review, offering another avenue for Council to create regulations that would lead to the kind of developments they would like to see.

“The reason I want to bring a such a formal report forward is because this is now my fifth year as a councillor and my first four years, as soon as I found out about these density targets …I was immediately turned off by the idea and said we should get rid of those,” said Nagel, recalling he was told that the Province would not let them in upcoming legislation that never came to be.

“The density targets were never fully mandated and now we have this growth management board formed [where], to my understanding, it’s still quite unclear as to how the density targets will be calculated, how they will be applied and what standard they’ll be enforced at,” said Nagel, stressing he does not want Cochrane to be as dense as Calgary. “I’d really just like to begin the discussion here.”

“I’m very happy you brought this forward. Density is a very important issues,” said Mayor Jeff Genung, though he was concerned about Nagel’s focus on density targets as opposed to looking at other ways to do development well. “If we start moving backwards in our own density targets we’ll make headlines around the world as being the only community doing that.”

To Genung, it was not a question of having high density or low density but how it is applied within each community so that a range of housing is available for everyone in Cochrane. He also added that since the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board was being based off of Edmonton’s which had concentric circles where the highest density targets in the middle of the city and the lowest out in the surrounding municipalities.

“I know outright that I want to reduce density targets,” said Nagel, believing that by doing so Cochrane would get more green space, nicer homes and slower development. “Lower density targets can achieve all three of those things.”

“I just want to scrap the density targets for now and just approve low density development, great big acreages and mansions that will sell slowly and will make our town nice and then when the Province decides to make us build apartments and condos, so be it,” said Nagel, which did not sit well with the rest of council who wanted to make sure Cochrane was not being built with only the wealthy in mind.

“For me it’s more of a middle ground of how we use density targets,” said Reed, stating that he was more in line with Genung’s thinking as he wanted Cochrane too blend the small starter homes with the larger lots for established families.

That said, he did want to lower the targets to allow for more green space and better quality of life rather than having a blanket density for the whole town while recognizing that communities like Heritage Hill, Heartland and Fireside were developed poorly irregardless of density targets.

“What we really need to look at as a community is how do we make sure there’s a space for everyone in our community at all stages of their life. How do you get the kid fresh out of high school a place to live with their first job and all the way to the R-1s,” said Councillor Tara McFadden, positing that higher density could be built downtown where it makes sense with the larger lots further out.

She also added that when Chestermere started moving toward larger lots it was hard for them to sustain and that every community built in the last decade meets the 8 to 10 upa and has not kept people from leading healthy lives in Cochrane.

“We have regulated away lawns. They don’t exist anymore,” Nagel countered, adding that many of the people now on council also ran on slowing down residential development. “With the 9,500 homes that we have approved [that have yet to be built], I cannot see how we could possibly slow down residential development without rethinking our density.”

“This is Canada, it’s not Tokyo. I don’t understand what the rush is to squeeze everyone in,” said Nagel. “Why do you want high density in Cochrane?”

“It’s the choices that we want. We can’t have all of one like we did 17 years ago when there was only the big single houses and nothing for apartments,” explained Councillor Susan Flowers. “Now we have a good choice for people. There’s a variety for if you’re old or young, married or single, there’s something for everybody.”

“I’m not advocating for high density in Cochrane,” added Genung in response to Nagel’s implications everyone else wanted big city densities in Cochrane. “I do think that we need an option for larger lots and less dense areas, but I don’t think reducing density targets is the way to do it.”

“We need to open it up and do development better,” said Fedyko, agreeing that you can’t just pump people into Cochrane but at the same time you do not tell people there is only one type of home available that few people can afford.

While maintaining that density targets were just as restrictive regarding what people could purchase as only building huge properties, Nagel did request that instead of reducing density targets they look at broadening them to something like 6 to 10 upa to better open up development options.

This potential solution was something everyone on council could support and they voted unanimously to have Administration bring back a report on the options available to the Town to broaden their density targets so both high, low and medium density residential units could be built in Cochrane.